


Fears

by dangerbread



Category: Hermitcraft, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Grumbo, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Tagging is hard wtf, crosspost, crossposted from Wattpad, grian feels unwelcome in hermitcraft oops, i wrote this weeks ago and have no memory of any of it so, im sorry, my wifi ruined the original end to this, the ending of this is jack shit im sorry, the god damn most common theme with grian shippings??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 23:01:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20143432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dangerbread/pseuds/dangerbread
Summary: Grian hasn't really seen much of the other hermits in awhile, and feels very lonely, left out, and unwelcome in Hermitcraft. After Mumbo realizes how off Grian seemed, he tries to figure out what's wrong.





	Fears

**Author's Note:**

> Just a side note that this is crossposted from off of Wattpad cause it didn't feel right there, but I didn't want to delete it either. It's kinda got an awkward ending imo because the original ending got obliterated by my bad wifi and lost to the damn void and I don't have the stamina or will to rewrite it better than what it currently has, soo... sorry about that if it's not that great h a ha- I also kept the shitty title from Wattpad; it's like that because I write so damn much in my titles on there that actual title chapters I do tend to be incredibly short so I can fit all the other stuff I puke into titles in there, too, so it's just plain old, lame old "Fears" YEAA
> 
> This isn't that great, and a tteerrrriibbllee example of how I actually write, but I'll be posting tons of other stuff soon anyways so it's alright I guess lel  
And sorry if there's spelling mistakes, I gave up on this thing long ago

Mumbo didn't know if it were just him, or if Grian had seemed awful sad for some reason lately. Grian had been over at Mumbo's base, Iskall there as well as they were chit chatting about Architech ideas and plans, and Grian was just... off kilter. He gave little to no ideas, which was _very_ unlike him. He's usually coming up with the idea or core concept of a lot of things, or at least joking around with them, yet... it was mostly just Mumbo and Iskall talking and laughing about their ideas and how to get back at the last person to prank their little group.

Sure, Grian had a smile on his face _most _of the time, and he _occasionally _gave a soft chuckle, but _that's _not how Grian acts. Grian is supposed to be loud, lively, and full of jokes and laughter. It made Mumbo a bit sad, too, that something was upsetting Grian.

Mumbo had been trying to finally get around to unclogging his storage system of eggs, feathers, and raw chicken after the last heroic attack from Poultry Man a few weeks ago; keyword, _trying_. ...And he threw that off his mind rather quickly to keep procrastinating on it to instead fly over to Grian's base, hoping he'd be there so he could try to ask him what's up. Hopefully he was just being unnecessarily worried about his friend for no good reason, and Grian was a-okay now.

He didn't like seeing Grian so sad. Grian had always been his friend, and Mumbo had actually had a bit of a thing for him for awhile now, too, though absolutely_ no one else_ knew about it. He was always worrying about ruining their already amazing friendship; there wasn't a single doubt in his mind, or any other hermit's for that matter, that he and Grian were absolute, inseparable best friends. He didn't want Grian to be upset; he would cheer him up and make him happy again no matter what! He wanted to see a genuine smile plopped back onto his face where it belonged. Grian without a smile was as logical as peanut butter on a toothbrush.

With that as some kind of confidence push, Mumbo haphazardly lands inside the main floor of Grian's base, "Grian?" He calls out loudly, so he'd get Grian's attention no matter where he was in the base.

"...Mumbo?" A confused reply from Grian followed moments later, Grian coming down through the hole in the center of the ceiling from some other floor above, "What are you doing here?"

"Ah... well, you see, I just kinda noticed something last we were around each other, and I wanted to check on you is all!" Mumbo says, "You were barely speaking a word when you and Iskall came over to my base the other day. What's up? Is something wrong? ...Joe make a mind crippling, linguistic, prank again, and you were the unfortunate victim of his words? Or did TFC go grandpa mode on you?" He throws a joke in to try and lower the slow rising tense feeling in the room, radiating from Grian himself.

His shoulders looked tense, his posture stiff, and he looked incredibly tired, "No, no, I haven't seen Joe in... uh, I think months? And TFC hasn't been around since... uh- I'm fine Mumbo, honestly!" And above his clearly distressed appearance, he throws a grin onto it to try and convince Mumbo of this.

He didn't buy it at all, though. Mumbo walks over, closer to Grian, and puts a hand on his shoulder in a comforting way, Grian watching him carefully the whole time, "You're _not _fine, Grian. I've known you long enough to know it's weird to see you act so calm all the time. Look... you don't have to tell me what's wrong if you don't trust telling me, but could you at least tell me _if _something's wrong? Or if someone else caused this?" He tries, giving Grian a small smile of reassurance, though he had a worried look on his face.

Grian stares at him for a moment before tentatively looking away, sighing before saying, "...No, I'm okay, Mumbo. Nothing is wrong." His voice is clearly far closer to melancholic than to being chipper and happy. That brought a frown to Mumbo's face.

Mumbo inwardly sighs in frustration; why couldn't he even _tell _Mumbo that he was upset? He wasn't even asking him just now for _why_ he's upset. Does Grian not trust him? ...Or did _Mumbo_ make him upset and he's the last person Grian would _ever _tell about what's wrong? Oh god... was it the comment about how impractical his base was after Mumbo had nearly shaved off his face on one of the pillars after a crash landing coming into the base? Or maybe when he made a comment about how annoying the chickens were with clogging up everything, and Grian was half the problem with why those chickens were even there in the first place, the rest being caused by the masked hero himself; Poultry Man. (But Mumbo could _never _scold a hero of such _upstanding _as _Poultry_ _Man_)

Was it that easy to make Grian really upset and sad? Hopefully it _wasn't _Mumbo as the source for this, and it was something he'd be able to fix or help...

Mumbo moves his hand on Grian's shoulder down his arm and over his hand, briefly holding Grian's hand and giving him a reassuring squeeze as he says, "You know that you can talk to and tell me about anything going on, right? I'll always be there to listen to you _no matter what_." And he separates their hands again. To be completely honest Mumbo felt butterflies in his stomach from just doing that, and felt like he'd keel over and die of nervousness for having actually _held _Grian's hand. Hopefully Grian wouldn't start thinking Mumbo's weird, or something like that...

"I know..." Grian mumbles, looking anywhere but at Mumbo now.

Mumbo remains still for a few more seconds before sighing again, "...Well, I've got a grueling task I must get around to, so I guess I'd best be off now." He says, starting to leave.

"WAIT!" Grian suddenly shouts in a panic, snatching Mumbo's wrist before he could fly off back to his own base, "Could you, uh- Want to hang out for a little while?" Grian asks, stumbling on his words at first and giving Mumbo a half nervous, half anxious smile.

"Uh, sure! ...I guess." Mumbo agrees, stopping in place and turning around to give Grian a brief look of confusion. He wiped it off his face and replaced it with a usual smile when he saw Grian's panicked expression though. Something was _definitely_ wrong, "Did you have something in mind, or...?"

"Uhh... no, but that reminds me that a, uh- a creeper blew up part of that redstone elevator you did, and I don't think I fixed it right!" Grian says a bit quickly. Still holding onto Mumbo's wrist, he drags him over to the magical redstone water elevator in question.

"Oh, a creeper? I'm sure that's an easy fix! Where did it-"

"I don't recall!" Grian interrupts whatever Mumbo was saying, further confusing the huggable mustache friend (woody voice YOOUUUU GOT A FRIEND IN MEEEE). Mumbo decides not to question the strange behavior as Grian lets his wrist go to make a hole in the wall so they could get to the redstone.

Around half an hour later, Mumbo deduces nothing was wrong at all. Nothing had been touched, and if Grian had really had to replace it, it would have probably been literally held together with band-aids and bubblegum. Mumbo had quickly caught on that this was some kind of excuse to get him to stay here longer, though, so he played along with it and said, "Well, it's like it was never changed! Either you happened to have stared at that specific spot for ages and memorized it by heart before it blew up, or you're better at redstone than I thought and you simply fixed it!"

"Ha ha, yeah... definitely _not _the last one. I think it was just luck." Grian says, scratching the back of his head as he avoids looking at Mumbo again.

Some hours later, Mumbo was still there at Grian's base, "...Got any fives?" They were playing Go Fish, and Grian must have forgotten what was previously bothering him, as he had been laughing and giggling all game at how bad Mumbo somehow was at this.

Grian giggles again as he says, "Go Fish!" And Mumbo is victim yet again to a new card, and no new matches, "Any threes...?" Grian then asks with an evil grin.

Mumbo facepalms into his cards; last round he had asked if Grian had a three, and since Grian had drawn a singular card, he of course _now _had one. While Grian keeps laughing about Mumbo's spectacular failure, Mumbo throws the card across to him, not being bothered to actually go through the effort to hand it to him anymore.

"You know, sometimes I feel like this whole deck was rigged, and you never shuffled it properly!" Mumbo jokingly accuses with a huff.

"Oh no no, this is total hardcore vanilla gameplay we've got going on here. There's no tricks or buzzers, and nothing up my sleeves!" Grian says, snickering behind his cards still.

That's pretty much how the entire game goes, and they keep aimlessly playing card games until they notice the sun's already gone down, "Oh bugger, I'm no fan of flying around at night; ...or flying at all, really." Mumbo comments as they notice this predicament.

"You can stay here for the night!" Grian instantly offers, sounding a little anxious again like when Mumbo was originally going to leave.

"That's all good with me, but you've only got the one bed, and your base is made almost entirely of _concrete_..." Mumbo didn't know if he'd prefer flying back at night to his base or the possibility of sleeping on the cold, concrete floor so Grian would stop sounding anxious and worried... He'd probably sleep on the floor if it somehow made Grian's worries go away, though.

"...You can take my bed, then!" Grian says, "And I can figure something else out."

"No, this is _your_ base and it's _your_ bed! You should be able to use your own bed!" Mumbo argues.

Grian thinks for a moment, his face dusted red when he speaks again, "Uhh... well, I think it's big enough for two people to share, so _neither _of us have to deal with the concrete floor problem?"

Mumbo's hit with a wave of nervous butterflies again, his face turning a bit red as well, "Oh, uh, if you think it'll work, and you're fine with it... S-Sure, I guess!" Mumbo agrees, neither of them able to look at the other before they sheepishly look in another direction.

Soon Grian leads Mumbo to his bed (let's pretend it's in an actual hecking room and not in the middle of a dAMN PILLAR, _GRIAN-_), and they both have their backs to each bother once they were both in it. Grian still had his red sweater, and Mumbo had put his tie and suit jacket nearby.

"Hey... Mumbo? Are you still awake?" Grian whispers after a while.

"Ugh, I am now. What's up?"

Grian shifts around so he's lying on his back now, "You asked me earlier if something was wrong, and uh, yeah... there is." He mumbles.

Mumbo turns around as well, though onto his side now facing Grian, after hearing him shift around first, "It wasn't hard to figure _that _part out, dude."

Grian looks at Mumbo for a moment, now that they could see each other's faces, "I'll tell you about it some other time. I'm too tired right now."

"Of course!" Mumbo smiles, "You can tell me whenever you want to; or not tell me anything at all!" He puts a hand on Grian's shoulder again like earlier, for some kind of reassurance.

Much to both of their surprise, Grian moves so he's now entirely facing Mumbo on his side, and he scoots forwards enough so he can hide his face into his chest. Mumbo's face turns red again, "G-Grian?"

Grian doesn't reply, though obviously he wasn't asleep yet because that would have been impossibly quick. Mumbo hesitantly puts his arms around him, both pulling him closer, and trying to comfort him again, "Uh, I'm sorry if I'm acting weird- I'm sorry if this is weird for you, I should probably-" Grian eventually starts saying, starting to pull away.

Mumbo kept his arms around him though, trapping him in his embrace, interrupting him with, "No, you don't have to! You can stay here... with me. This is nice." Grian hides his red face in Mumbo's chest again, just nodding his head slightly as response.

Grian's hands are both between himself and Mumbo, one of his hands fiddling with the nearest button on Mumbo's shirt. Mumbo had one arm under the crook of Grian's neck, and the same hand messing with and combing through Grian's hair in a gentle manner. His other arm was over Grian, and the hand was placed on the middle of Grian's back. All Mumbo really knew was Grian wanted Mumbo to comfort him, and if he wasn't turning this kind of comfort down, Mumbo was all for it.

Eventually Grian falls asleep as they were, and Mumbo watched his chest expand with every soft breath he took. He was a lot more calm like this, and he had a small smile on his face still. Mumbo buries most of his face in Grian's hair, so every time he inhaled all he smelt was the familiar smell of Grian ...and a bit of salt and fish due to his oceanic base. As he fell asleep, he wondered if Grian had been able to hear how fast Mumbo's heart had been beating while he was still awake; but he can't dwell on that long, as he falls asleep rather quickly as well.

-

...Sometime the next day, Grian and Mumbo had both not mentioned the night prior, though they acted more skittish around each other. Eventually Mumbo decides to ask Grian about what was bothering him again since Grian hadn't said anything about it yet, like he said he eventually would, "Hey, G?" He starts, "Are you ready to tell me what's wrong, or did you change your mind?"

"Oh-! Uh... I don't really know how to start talking about it..." Grian says rather quietly.

"Where ever is easiest?"

Grian was silent for a few more moments before he sighed and then started speaking again, "Well, uh, you remember what I said yesterday about Joe and TFC after you mentioned them?"

Mumbo racked his brain to remember the quick comment about it from Grian, but couldn't quite recall it, "..._Nope_. What did you say?"

"I haven't seen either of them in _months_. Not a few days, not weeks, but at least _two months_. I haven't seen _anyone_ that isn't you, or Iskall, in so long that isn't here to ask for some extra materials, or asking if I've seen someone else around!" Grian says, "And I'm starting to think I only see Iskall because he's in on Sahara and Architechs with us!"

"That's weird..." Mumbo comments mostly to himself just before Grian continues again.

"I just- Is there something wrong with _me_? I'm the new guy, do they just do this to _everyone _who's new? Or does this mean they regret letting me anywhere around them? No one's even just stopped by when in the area to say hi to me, and no one's come to hang around for awhile; just you do! Do I annoy them? ...Do I annoy you, too?"

"What-? _No!_ No, of course you don't annoy me, Grian!" Mumbo quickly says, waving his hands, "I might say some things you do are annoying, _like the constant eggings_, but that's not _you_ who's annoying! That's the chickens!" ...Was Mumbo really using chickens as a counter argument? Yes he was, "You don't annoy anyone else, either! Everyone loves you being here with us, you know! I don't really know what's up with no one visiting you, but it's not on purpose, I can promise it! ...It's probably just some kind of weird coincidence!" If what Grian was saying about no one actually talking to or being around him in so long, he was gonna have a rather unpleasant talk with the others soon...

"Then- Then why does no one seem to like me? I'm always just in my base alone all the time now. No one wants my help, so I don't really go to anyone anymore either since they clearly don't want me around them..." By this point, tears he tried hard to hold back were building in his eyes, "Scar and Cub were in the area just the other day, you know! They went to _your _base, and they completely ignored my whole place entirely! You're the only one who I've actually seen in at least a week and a half, besides my own _reflection_!"

Mumbo hadn't said anything in the middle of all that, just letting Grian confess all this to him instead. He almost felt as if his heart would physically crack from seeing how deeply upset this predicament had made Grian, and how Mumbo hadn't even noticed the lack of interaction Grian had had with the others. ...He already knew his next ambition; get a bunch of the others to do something together, and make sure Grian is amongst the hermits there.

"H-Hey! Grian, it's okay!" Mumbo says, Grian's tears finally falling down his face just afterwards, as if what Mumbo had said had triggered it.

Not really knowing what else to do, Mumbo quickly engulfed Grian in a hug; Grian immediately hugging him back tightly as his shoulders now shook with his crying, and he hid his face into Mumbo's chest, "W-What's wrong with me, M-Mumbo?"

"Shh, stop talking yourself down like that! There's nothing wrong with you! I obviously can't speak for everyone else, but you're the most amazing person I've ever met! You're my best friend after all, right?" Mumbo says, throwing out anything that could comfort Grian and hopefully make him stop crying; he didn't like seeing Grian cry, "My life would be totally different if I never met you, you know. I'm ninety nine percent sure _everyone_ here enjoys your constant involvement and rallying you do! All your pranks, all the events you've caused, and all the games you've made and played with us! I don't think you realize it, but you've quickly become the core of what most of us do all together as almost the entire group, aside from a few!" (...rip Jessassin, hasn't uploaded HCS6 in what... 10 months now? xD oof)

"Then why does no one come around here anymore? They only go to you..."

"I don't know, but like I said, there's no way it's on purpose. I didn't know this was even happening, you should have told me a long time ago! And for the record, Iskall's not only around you because of Architechs, he's around because he's your friend, too!" Mumbo says, going full Mom-bo mode on Grian for a moment.

This makes Grian chuckle quietly, just a little, as he starts calming down again, "Just you wait, when I scold the entire server because of this, they'll probably all flood your base at once, and _everyone_ will be here with you!"

"I don't think so, but thanks, Mumbo..." Grian murmurs.

Neither of them say anything for a few moments, Mumbo staying silent as he thought. ...Now seemed a better time than any to potentially ruin his entire friendship with Grian with just a few words, so he goes for it. He separates Grian from himself enough so they could now see each other's faces, "You don't think so, but I _know_ so!" He says as he wipes away what was left of Grian's tears, "...You know I care about you, right?" Mumbo then says after Grian was silent for a few moments.

Grian's face turned redder as he looked at Mumbo after he had said that, "Huh?"

"We've known each other more than long enough, so I think it's safe to say that I, without a doubt, have long since fallen for you, Grian. ...You're my best friend, and I love you."

"_R-Really...?_" Grian says in a slightly higher pitch than normal, a small, wonky smile breaking out on his face, making Mumbo smile that he'd finally cheered Grian up enough to make him smile again, "I-I feel the same way about you! I just... I was very sure I annoyed you and you didn't even like me that much as a friend..."

"What would give you _that_ kind of idea! I've never disliked you at all! Now come here!" Mumbo says, a huge grin on his face as he gives Grian a soul crushing hug.

Grian wheezes, getting crushed by the mustached fiend, "_Mumbo- You're gonna kill me-"_

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone has any coolio ideas they want to see written, hmu brudda I can barely come up with my own ideas  
I have a few more things that are almost finished that I'll eventually post on here super soon, after that I'm left with one three chapter mini project thing and then I'm fresh outta ideas for the time being, so uh-
> 
> ...It's free real estate?


End file.
